Not much here today . . . I got home today after spending most of last week visiting family in the SF Bay Area. I'm full of great food (dim sum at Yank Sing in SF; Zachary's stuffed pizza in Oakland; In-n-Out burgers -- get 'em animal-style) and stunned, as always, by the Menlo Park / Palo Alto residential real estate market, which is beyond surreal. I was underwhelmed, again, by the not-so-engaging central business districts of both places. The heart of the Silicon Valley is beautiful, but it has no soul. . . . The PTC's next Face to Face is Wednesday, August 8 at Six Penn Kitchen. The schedule is updated here. . . . The Strategic Research Institute is planning a major Stem Cell Research Conference in Pittsburgh on October 29 and 30. The announcement is here. . . . I'm on to Chicago later this week for a conference . . . now there's a town with heart *and* soul.

Comments

Hey Mike - Chicago seems to have it all doesn't it? One of my favorite places to visit. The windy is a leading green city, has great universities, good public transit, sports, culture, diversity, mob history, rebirth after fire, blues, comedy, etc. etc. Oh, and how could I forget about the food!

All that comes with a cost - its tough to find a reasonably priced house even way out in the burbs - and the airport and traffic. Well, at least I could always hop on the train there.

I heard a story from a guy out of Cleveland this past weekend. He was talking about how they were having success getting young people to move into the city. He also mentioned how years ago, the mayor of Cleveland invited Chicago's Mayor Daley to come to Cleveland to talk to business owners about what they needed to do to help grow the vitality of Cleveland. It sounds like some of his advice is paying off there, especially in regards to green building.

Mayor Daley did not start out with all the power he has today. Daley mad a lot of controversial decisions, especially decisions like his environmental projects that drew criticism from the business crowd. Those decisions were well ahead of their time - and have proven over time to play a huge role in transforming the image of Chicago. That is why I used the term "visionary."

Can you expand on "Pittsburgh will need much more than a visionary for mayor" because I think that is precisely what we need. Leadership, vision, guts. Oh, and some common sense wouldn't hurt.

Can you expand on "Pittsburgh will need much more than a visionary for mayor" because I think that is precisely what we need. Leadership, vision, guts.

There's no way, at least in the near term, that Pittsburgh's mayor is going to wield as much power as Daley wields. Daley's kind of politics can't and won't work in Pittsburgh.

Actually, I think politics in Pittsburgh are so dysfunctional that I don't expect any elected official to lead the city and region to global prominence.

A Daley-like visionary as Pittsburgh's mayor wouldn't hurt, but he or she can't do all that much to realize her or his vision. We need a bunch of stakeholders to buy in and push the agenda. That's not an easy trick to pull off.